spent a couple of wonderful smoke-filled hours last night in a small bar back home listening to two local bands. i like seeing people play at small venues because you get a really genuine show from the band and there is less of the audience/performer divide that occurs at larger spaces.

Both bands had members who were friends/schoolmates of mine in high school, and I always enjoy seeing people play that I know because it’s well…better, somehow.

I really liked both shows, thought the bands really rocked out, had fun, and were entertaining enough to watch for the almost four hours that we were there.
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Well kiddos, all of my possesions are finally in one place.

That dosen’t mean its all unpacked or organized. What’s more, i went up in the attic and wired the house with ethernet so we could have broadband internet in several rooms. This post was sort of waiting on the internet.

LSU. dang. When you go to college for the first time, everything’s so streamlined (for most people). The freshman experience has been crafted from years of consistency and routine. The Transfer process, however, can be quite the opposite. I knew this from the beginning, but i couldn’t exactly predict where i was going to fall flat on my face.

Transfer orientation did absolutely nothing. They hadn’t processed my most recent transcript. Things got exponentially hairier from there. I missed the fee-bill registration deadline (conveniently set for 7 PM on the very night of transfer orientation (and by conveniently i mean purposefully intended to screw the out-of-state transfers who need “departmental equivalencies”)). In addition, it was quite unnerving to hear the Man who Holds the Future of My Undergraduate Career in the Palm of His Hand question my credibility when i showed him some printouts of Mercer’s Catalog. People… i’m not trying to cheat… i have a transcript full of good grades that i freaking earned, and it is indeed your job to help me.

Not everyone was a jackass to me. In fact, one lady was so nice to me about giving me credit and wanting me to succeed that i actually felt bad about it, like by asking her to write an eval for me, i was taking advantage of her power.

So here’s the lowdown: After about 30 emails and half as many phone calls, in the end, the only credit hours i lost were those that i really didn’t have to do anything to earn at Mercer. things like UNV 101 or Honors Engineering. Way to cut through the crap, LSU. My degree plan is all over the map, though, because of differences in class timing between LSU and Mercer.

the only really bad news: i discover that i must, alas, take another Math class, 3/4 of which will not actually apply to my Engineering curriculum. I am so mathed out. And the obligatory twist of fate: I’ve been offered a math tutoring job. Sweet. Dollars in my pocket for teaching kids some Calculus.

sigh.

THE NEWTONS are playing for mercer orientation!!! August 13th, porter patch. I’m travelling back to Georgia hopefully on the 11th of August, after which i will be practicing non-stop until the show. And then i’ll have like 4 or 5 days to chill with my ATO’s and influence the freshmen.

Dude i can’t believe i’m already a junior.

this seems like its taking forever.

i’m living in the new house right now, sans furniture, telephone, internet, or food. i have to go to the old house for those things. i’ve got my music equipment set up at the new house, though, and it sounds just as sweet as it did the first day i got it. i’ll post a picture by the end of the week.

however, by the end of the week, i’ll have all those other things in the new house too. so maybe it’ll be like a comparison picture. and i’ll be carrying an official LSU id card, because i’ll also have gone to orientation and discovered how many classes i can’t take because they are full.

so yay for summer moving quickly along. not really.

before i know it, august will be here. and then apartment. and then back to georgia. and then back to baton rouge. So many places and things. I’m liking a routine-ness that’s going on now. My creativity, however, has evaporated with such stagnancy. i still love playing music, but writing is more of a task. when me and jon jam these days, its super sweet, and if only we can track down a drummer, we’d have a fully instrumented trio. and that would be my favorite pasttime.